


Black Diamonds and Helium

by the_rck



Series: To Us a Thorn, To Them a Rose [2]
Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: Choices, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Parenthood, Referenced Warren/Will/Layla, past betrayal, strained marriages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:53:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27953420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rck/pseuds/the_rck
Summary: Josie just hadn't expected to see Laurel Peace in Starbucks. If Josie was honest, she hadn't expected to see Laurel anywhere at all. Josie would have put money on Laurel living with Warren and Layla and Will.But Will had never once specifically said that Laurel was there. He'd mildly implied it, but he'd never said it.Josie probably needed to start paying attention to Will's phrasing. She read his smuggled letters over and over and had questioned a lot of what was in them, but she hadn't questioned this.
Series: To Us a Thorn, To Them a Rose [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1901251
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	Black Diamonds and Helium

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gammarad](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/gifts).



> Title from Melissa Stein's poem, "Figure, ground."

As Josie walked into Starbucks, a woman she recognized stood and waved at her. Josie stopped walking in order to do a quick situational assessment.

Four civilians, including the barista, all apparently going about normal business. Everything smelled right and sounded right.

Josie just hadn't expected to see Laurel Peace in Starbucks. If Josie was honest, she hadn't expected to see Laurel anywhere at all. Josie would have put money on Laurel living with Warren and Layla and Will.

But Will had never once specifically said that Laurel was there. He'd mildly implied it, but he'd never said it.

Josie probably needed to start paying attention to Will's phrasing. She read his smuggled letters over and over and had questioned a lot of what was in them, but she hadn't questioned this.

Josie stared for a moment.

Laurel met her eyes and waved again. She smiled and said, "It's been a while. I've got a free seat." She glanced around at the nearly empty seating area. "I have pictures of the kids if you're interested."

Josie hesitated.

Laurel's hands were on the table. She had a drink and a huge and half-eaten blueberry muffin. There was an ereader sitting on the table next to her plate and a big, open topped canvas bag on the floor next to her.

Josie smiled. "Give me a minute." She continued on her way to the counter and got herself a hot chai latte that she had no intention of drinking. She considered her options and added a couple of over-priced, factory wrapped pieces of chocolate.

She sat opposite Laurel and said, "It's been forever."

Laurel shrugged. "Half a decade, give or take." She pulled a chunk off of her muffin and ate it. "You look exhausted. Bad day at work?"

Josie was fairly sure that Laurel understood that Josie looking tired wasn't new.

Josie wondered if Will had seen any recent pictures of her or of Steve that weren't publicity shots for Jetstream and the Commander. "The years are catching up," Josie said. "I suppose they always do."

Laurel nodded. She looked away for several seconds, and Josie thought Laurel was trying to decide what to say next. "Things have gotten... weird. Possibly better for us--" Laurel waved to indicate herself and Josie.

Josie suspected that Steve was included in that wave, too.

"Here." Laurel twitched some photographs out from under her ereader. 

The one on top showed Will standing next to himself in front of a building that Josie knew had been demolished last year. "Shapeshifting or illusion?" she asked. "Or both?"

"Alternate universe," Laurel replied. "The kids are moving because, well--" She shuffled the pictures so that one of Layla was on top.

Layla was visibly pregnant.

Josie had been expecting that for almost a decade, but it still made her stop breathing for a moment. "When's she due?"

"Another eight weeks, give or take." Laurel shuffled the picture of the two Wills back to the top again. "I'm moving in with them to help with the baby." She tapped one of the Wills. "He's buying their old place. Well, trading more. Our kids are good at the... repairs... his place needs."

Now that Josie was looking, she realized that the indicated Will looked younger than her son. He also, she thought, looked harder edged. Josie would hesitate to fight that young man without backup.

She and Steve were going to have to fight that young man, and nobody was going to believe that he wasn't their son.

"The kids have room for you and Steve if you want to move, too," Laurel said softly. "They could use your help. The whole world's a fixer upper."

Josie leaned back in her chair and tried to convince herself that she hadn't already made up her mind. "You talked to Jim and Debra yet?"

Laurel shook her head. "Layla's... She's having trouble with that part. As far as I can tell, she's never admitted that she upset them. She hasn't even sent them a birthday card since-- Since."

Josie nodded. She could see why Layla wouldn't want to have the conversation. She could also see why Laurel wasn't going to touch it. Josie didn't much want to, either, but Jim and Debra were her friends in a way that they'd never been Laurel's. "How long do we have to decide?"

"The travel window closes in nine days," Laurel answered. "The next one won't be for one hundred and sixty-one days after that."

Almost six months. That-- Josie wanted to see Will. She suspected that she'd agree to ridiculously risky things for the chance to visit.

Convincing Steve was going to be the hard part, that and packing.

"Do we have a weight limit?" Josie put her fingertips on the photographs. "Also, can I have these? I can at least let her parents know she's not dead."

Laurel pushed the photos across the table. "Not weight," she said, "but transporting too much to the departure point would be..." She studied Josie's face, and Josie nodded her understanding.

In other words, they couldn't leave without ordinary travel first, and if she and Steve tried to bring anything large, people would notice. Josie shrugged. "Zach can water the plants." She could give Zach power of attorney.

He wouldn't ask questions, and he could deal with the house and the Super Secret Sanctum after she and Steve were gone.  
___________

Josie didn't call ahead when she went to visit Layla's parents. She was afraid that Jim would try to make it an Occasion.

He worried about how other Heroes viewed Debra now, after all of the things Layla had done, and there were definitely a lot of people who wouldn't so much as nod at her if they ran into each other, in costume or out.

Josie didn't visit them much because their loss rubbed against hers in ways that abraded her heart; Steve didn't visit them at all because he was deeply-- and probably permanently-- angry at Layla and blamed Jim and Debra for not teaching her better.

Josie was pretty sure that Jim felt the lost human interaction more acutely than Debra did.

Debra had always spent 70% of her time talking to animals anyway. She'd been perfectly happy to move to the grounds of the wildlife rehabilitation center she and Jim ran and to focus her attention on injured birds and rescued chimpanzees. She missed Layla, but she thought that Layla could look after herself.

"I'm glad she didn't inherit my power," Debra had once confided in Josie, "that is, not exactly the same power. It'll make it easier for her to claim her own territory when she's grown if she doesn't have to fight me for control."

Debra probably hadn't included terrorism in her definition of claiming territory, but Debra's views on Heroes and Villains were peculiar in that she viewed the whole thing as more a matter of symbiosis versus parasitism. Legalities had only ever vaguely entered into her worldview.

Josie drove to the sanctuary, but she approached via a dirt track that Google still hadn't managed to find. Eventually, she parked under a tree.

She felt eyes on her as she started walking. Most of them were probably nothing but mice and squirrels, but there was sure to be at least one coyote, and each tree held two or three crows.

The crows guarded the borders because they loved Debra. They reported to Jim because he fed them and because he was the one who'd actually respond to trespassers.

Josie studied the branches until she spotted a crow. She nodded at it, and it nodded back. "Please tell Jim that Josie's coming up the north path. Tell him--" For a moment, she couldn't breathe. "Tell him it's about-- about our hatchlings." She couldn't remember how long crows lived, and she wasn't sure these birds would remember Layla even if they were old enough to have met her.

The crow stared at Josie for several seconds. Then, it and three crows from other trees launched into the air with a cacophony of caws. Together, they flew toward the cabin where Jim lived and Debra sometimes slept.

Josie wondered, not for the first time, whether Debra would miss Jim if he left. The hell of it was that she probably would; she just wouldn't do anything to keep him any more than she'd done anything to bring Layla home.

Josie's mouth tasted of iron and dust. Either there was no point in her having come here, or she was going to provoke Jim into leaving Debra alone with her animals. Josie didn't think there was a middle path.

Josie wondered what the crows would do to her if they understood why she was there. In the air, she was faster than they were, but on the ground, she moved at normal human speeds, and she wasn't planning to fly today.

________

Jim met Josie at the door. He looked thinner than he had the last time she'd visited. He offered her a mug.

She took it and sniffed the steam. Mint. Perfect for settling her stomach. She managed a smile. "You always know."

"I pay attention," he told her, "and you gave me warning." He stepped back so that she could pass the door. "Sit wherever."

"I think this is a kitchen table conversation," Josie said. 

"Well then." Jim swept a hand toward the table. "Pick a chair."

Josie took the same chair she always took.

Jim wouldn't say anything if she sat in Debra's chair. He wouldn't even say anything if she sat in his. He'd explained before that habit was not the same as ownership.

Josie had never been convinced.

She waited for Jim to sit down. "It's not bad news. Not exactly." She wrapped her hands around her mug then loosened her grip when the heat became uncomfortable.

"It's the kids." Jim didn't bother making it a question.

"Yeah." Josie closed her eyes for a second. "They found a way to cross to another universe, and they're planning to stay." She sighed. "The why is complicated. Laurel told me, and I'm telling you. She says that, if we go too, we can all be on the same side."

Jim stared at her.

For a moment, Josie could see the grief in him.

"Do they need us?" he asked. "They didn't before."

Josie didn't have an answer for that.

Laurel had known before it happened; Warren had trusted her for that.

Josie and Steve had had the comfort of knowing that Will hadn't _planned_ to leave.

Layla hadn't warned her parents. She hadn't invited them to join her. She had walked away without looking back.

Josie looked down at her tea.

"It's five years too late," Jim said. "Well, maybe three." He looked away. "Debra won't go, and I... Neither of them actually need me."

Josie needed several seconds to realize that Jim meant Debra and Layla rather than Layla and Warren or Layla and Will. "I'm going," Josie said. "Steve will... I won't force him, and I don't know if he-- I don't know if he _should_ go." She felt tears in her eyes as she realized why she'd come here before going home to give Steve the news.

"Jim," Josie went on, "I... I think _I_ need you to come with me. Whether Steve comes or not, I can't deal with all of it without you there, too." She pulled the photographs out of her bag and slid them across the table.

Jim laid the photographs out, side by side. "Oh." He looked up, his eyes meeting Josie's. "And you have to go, don't you?"

Now it was Josie's turn to look away. "I have to."

"You really don't." Jim didn't sound as if he expected her to believe that.

Josie did believe him, though, so she gave him the truth. "I want to go. Steve will go if I insist, I think, but he won't forgive me for it. He'd prefer to be kidnapped, and I..." Her lips pressed together in an unforgiving line.

Her hands closed again on her mug. She squeezed until her fingers ached. "I _hate_ that part of him." She felt tears rolling down her face. "I love Steve. Still. I don't want to hurt him, and he won't let me avoid it. I need you to stand with me when I tell him that I'm going."

Jim stood and walked around the table. He put a hand on Josie's shoulder and squeezed. "Okay," he said. "I can do that. For you, I _will_ do that. I still love Debra, but I don't think she'll notice I'm gone."

"You'll tell her goodbye?" Josie wasn't sure she'd forgive Jim if he didn't. She'd understand, but it would mean Layla had hurt him beyond healing, and everything would be harder.

"She's listening now," Jim said. "She trusts you not to attack me, but she watches when humans come near. Even you." He shrugged. "I'm human, and Debra's not. She gave it up after Layla went because she couldn't bear to keep on with it. Debra always had trouble with humans. Even me. She loves me, but it'll be easier if I go as long as I'm going to something instead of..." He waved his hand.

Josie looked around, trying to spot how Debra was listening. She supposed it didn't matter. "Sometimes, love isn't enough," Josie said, "not one love on its own." She lifted her mug and drank.

"I have some things in storage," Jim said. "Things Layla might want, that is."

"Steve will feel better about staying here if he helps you move." Josie wasn't sure it was true. She also wasn't sure that Steve was going to let them leave him behind. She just thought that he was more likely to accept responsibility for deciding if she wasn't going alone.


End file.
